Saturday, January 5, 2008

Lola's Pizza To Tide You Over

My sinuses might disagree slightly with the statement that reports of my death were greatly exaggerated. Thought it was just a huge win hangover from the Fiesta Bowl watching on Wednesday, but it turns out that screaming your face off while having a few beers, then putting on the patch the next day while a head/chest cold starts up is NOT any version of 'yours stars aligning.'

But I have a couple pictures to share with you from Thursday pseudo-date night with Chez. That means it has all the trappings of a date, but Jer doesn't worry cause we're really just having pizza from Lola's.

It started with the sweet potato salad for me. Chunks of sweet potatoes and avacado with red onion and orange slices and gorgonzola over mixed greens with a cilantro-lime vinagrette. Tasty sweet-tart combo, lemme tell ya'. Chez went with the goat cheese salad, with her cute little goat cheese fritters all nestled in greens.

Lola's is the kind of place where you CAN really agree on one pizza, as Chez and I did Thursday, settling on the roasted eggplant with roasted peppers and mozzarella. We disagreed on size, she won, we got a large, I thanked her profusely while noshing on my fourth piece of eggplanty, garlicky, roasted red peppery goodness.

All the pies there are divine, though, so go order more than one. The special pie of the night, especially in summertime when they can get fresh veg, is incredible. The special salad last Thursday was a great seasonal mix with walnuts and apples over mixed greens.

There's this basil pesto they drizzle on some pies. You want it. By the bathtub full. There's also a damn sticky-delicious balsamic reduction that's on the Spinach and Gorgonzola pie. I've ordered it more times than any other. Not sure that'll ever change, though the Pesto-Portobella might someday overtake it. Yes, that means eating goat cheese when I forget to have it removed. Stranger things have (and will continue to) happened.

I'd be remiss if I didn't discuss crust for just a second. As you can see, it's thin crust. The point of each slice is overburdened with cheese and goodness, so you need to prop it with your second hand while folding at the back edge. I am not opposed to this at all. For all you 'ew, floppy point of pizza' people out there, I submit to you that space at Lola's is limited, and I want to thank you for not getting in the way of ME getting more tasty pies there.

For me, too, with Bubby now behind the bar, you can go and snark at Bubby with J and (sorry I've forgotten J's cohort's name) while you wait for your pie and they wait for him to pout glasses of wine and sangria for their customers. Really good people. And an excellent small wine and beer list. There aren't any duds that I've found. The wines include Catena (when they can get it), Zen of Zin, lots of whites to which I'll have to start paying more attention, etc. You can have a Stella, a Czechvar, and Guiness, several flavors of Rogue in the large bottles served with mini-wine bottle chillers, and more.

Many times I'll go there with Chez or somebody and get a large pie, a salad each, and a bottle of Big Tattoo/Two Brothers wine. Go read the About page and figure out why I'm happy to buy bottles of that wine from good friends who run a restaurant that uses local ingredients to make delicious food.